Flash Cookies Lawsuit Tossed for Lack of Harm–La Court v. Specific Media
By Eric Goldman La Court v. Specific Media, Inc., 8:10-cv-01256-GW-JCG (C.D. Cal. April 28, 2011) Lawsuits over cookies seem so Y2K to me. I thought we’d pretty much concluded that placing cookies wasn’t actionable a decade ago (see, e.g., In…
California’s Reader Privacy Act: A First Step in a New Direction (Guest Blog Post)
By Sonya Ziaja (with comments at the end from Eric) [Eric’s note: this guest post is from Sonya Ziaja, J.D., a California attorney and co-owner of Ziaja Consulting LLC. She writes regularly for LegalMatch’s Law Blog and Ziaja Consulting’s blog,…
A Look at the Commercial Privacy Bill of Rights Act of 2011
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] The Commercial Privacy Bill of Rights Act of 2011 Senators McCain and Kerry recently introduced the Commercial Privacy Bill of Rights Act of 2011. It will probably go through various iterations before being enacted, and its…
FTC Warns Debt Collector About Using Facebook to Contact Debtor
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] In the Matter of Gary D. Nitzkin, P.C. (FTC Letter; Mar. 10, 2011) Debt collectors have gotten into trouble over the use of social media to contact debtors. (See “Judge Orders Creditor to Stay Off Debtor’s…
Bulk Emailers (Mostly) Lose Three 47 USC 230(c)(2) Rulings–Holomaxx v. Microsoft/Yahoo & Smith v. TRUSTe
By Eric Goldman I’ve been so behind that it’s taken me until now to blog these cases from last month. All three opinions involve the same basic fact pattern: a bulk emailer gets blocked by an email service provider (relying…
Judge Recognizes Loss of Value to PII as Basis of Standing for Data Breach Plaintiff — Claridge v. RockYou
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani with comments from Eric] Claridge v. RockYou, 2011 WL 1361588 (N.D. Cal.; Apr. 11, 2011) RockYou is a developer and publisher of applications for use with Facebook, MySpace, hi5, and Bebo. RockYou’s applications allow users to…
Claims that Emails were not Labeled as Ads and did not Disclose Tracking Preempted by CAN-SPAM — Martin v. CCH
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Martin v. CCH, 10-cv-3494 (N.D. Ill.; Mar. 24, 2011) Plaintiff received two emails from CCH, with the following subject lines: “Buy now pay Feb. 15” [and] “Offer extended – Buy now pay Feb. 15” Based on…
March 2011 Quick Links, Part 2
By Eric Goldman Trademark * Apple is on the road to CrazyTown with its attempt to secure and protect trademark rights in “App Store.” Among the “highlights” this month: – it sued Amazon. Marty’s comments. The Justia page. – Microsoft…
Court Denies Request for Discovery of Facebook and Twitter Account Information, Finding that the Request is a “Digital Fishing Expedition”
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Caraballo v. City of NY, Index No. 75535/08 (N.Y. Sup. Ct.; Mar. 4, 2011) Plaintiff suffered personal injuries “while performing work at 417 O’Gorman Avenue, also known as 45 Keegans Lane, on Staten Island.” Predictably, defendant…
Website Privacy Policy Supports Pseudonymous Poster’s Expectation of Privacy — Cornelius v. Deluca
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Cornelius v. Deluca, 10-Cv-027-BLW (D.Id.; Mar. 15, 2011) A district court judge in Idaho denied a request to unmask the identity of a pseudonymous forum poster. In support of its decision, the court looked to the…